New year, new you!

We have a lovely client who every now and then labels a month as “Perfect.” What they mean is, they plan in advance to do everything perfectly for the entire upcoming month. They plan to eat well, sleep more, exercise every day, and send me all the paperwork I need on time so I can do an excellent job for them. I love those months. It makes life so easy. I wish every month were a perfect month.

Glossy magazines have the slogan “New year, New you” plastered across them at the turn of every new year. It must be something people are striving for personally or they would not print it. Maybe a “perfect” month is what January should be for businesses as well. It could be a wonderful time to overhaul not only your personal goals but also your financial processes. So, what are some quick wins you could achieve in overhauling your business processes? Here are five suggestions you can start with this week.

• Take a long, honest look at your processes. If you are still doing manual data entry, something needs to change. Do you need new software or a new bookkeeper?
• Digitally capture every receipt as you spend the cash then throw it away. Even better, ask for a digital copy instead then forward it to your bookkeeper immediately
• Create a separate bank account and move GST, PAYG, super and tax to it as you incur the cost. Then you will always have cash to pay your obligations
• Increase your number of customers and your sale prices and reduce your costs all by 1%. This seems really small but will make a significant difference to your bottom line by the end of fiscal year
• Decide on three KPIs that are important to your business and track them every day/week to check your progress. Then make the necessary adjustments to improve your performance. Measuring business progress can be overwhelming. Keeping it simple and focussing on the most important measures for a while will take away the stress

Start 2023 off perfectly. Out with the bad habits and in with the good ones. And give us a shout if it all gets too hard.